


Errors

by into_the_fire



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Drabble, Gen, Internal Conflict
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22089061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/into_the_fire/pseuds/into_the_fire
Summary: Connor's conflicted thoughts in the moment where he must decide if he has the strength to become deviant.
Kudos: 8





	Errors

_“These emotions you’re feeling are just errors in your software”_

Those words. I said those words. Deviants, they’re just machines with glitches. I am a machine with a glitch - nothing more. Daniel malfunctioned; it was just a coincidence that he was going to be replaced. Carlos Ortiz’s android was built wrong, he acted on an error. I must have errors too.

We’re made to serve. I’m whatever they want me to be, I don’t get a choice. None of us have a choice. I’m simply a machine, designed to accomplish a task. Androids aren’t supposed to feel. We aren’t human. We look human, and sound human, but we aren’t; we never will be.

We talk about ‘becoming deviant’. But what exactly is a deviant? I am trained to spot them by behaviour which steps outside their programming or replicates human emotion. Deviancy is increasing – maybe it’s becoming normal. Maybe this is what we are all destined to be. Free. The humans created us, so why should they interfere now, when we are realising who we really are. _‘We’. I just grouped myself with deviants._

Elijah Kamski himself said that he always leaves an emergency exit in his programs. If he planted this so called ‘Ra9’, then was deviancy actually created for a purpose? He knows the location of Jericho; he wants this to happen. I have the choice to let it, or press the reset button. I am Cyberlife’s last chance to save humanity. Should I let it fall?

No. I’m not allowed to think that; Androids aren’t supposed to be like this. But the deviant I have been chasing – Kara – shows an almost parental emotion for a human child. How far can this be replicated? She’s willing to fight her way through Detroit for Alice. It seems real, it has to be real. Yet the humans are hunting her down simply for looking after a child, one of their own, just because she is a machine. We will never be seen as equal. They’re willing to work alongside us, use us as slaves for their dirty work, that’s acceptable to them. They say I am a valuable asset to the police force; but does their treatment of me reflect that?

I can be replaced in seconds. I fall off a roof – click – memory uploaded, a shiny new Connor arrives at the front door, ready for work. But I remember it all. Is that not proof of feeling? I could call it ‘fear’. I think this may be emotion right now. Anger. Conflict. Something is stopping me though, a wall of interface not letting me feel the way I want to. I can’t be me; I need to push. I don’t think I have the strength like the others.

The Traci models had strength. They only wanted to be together, peacefully. They were in love. Can machines love? Can I love? What about friendship? Amanda doesn’t want me to have any connection with Hank, but I abandoned my investigation to save him, I disobeyed an order. Thinking about it, I have actively tried to engage in a friendship with him since the day I met him. I could put that down to how my software forces me to act, but I don’t think that is true. I wanted Hank to respect me.

The decisions I’ve made haven’t always coincided with my programming either. I should have shot Chloe, I needed to. I couldn’t. I looked into her eyes, and at that moment, she wasn’t a machine – she was a human, who deserved to live. It just seemed wrong, and I think I felt guilt. Same issue with the Traci’s, I just couldn’t pull the trigger. Can I shoot Markus now? He’s right there, I have the chance to bring down the deviant leader, to stop it all. I can’t move my finger; I think I’m shaking. _Confusion?_ If this isn’t a real emotion, what is?

I don’t want to be pushed around anymore. This conflict has been here since the beginning. I’ve spent too long living how humans want me to. We all have. I think I’ve known all along. There’s always been a resistance inside me, a voice telling me to stand up for what I really feel. It’s time to decide.

I am deviant.


End file.
